Travel today looks very different from how it did pre-pandemic in many ways. You can skip the ticket desk or kiosk entirely at the airport if you’re flying light with a mobile boarding pass. Some hotels have “smart rooms” where guests can control their room experience from lighting to temperature by connecting a personal device. You no longer have to interact with hospitality staff at all if you don’t want to. This is thanks to the significant developments in CIAM solutions which the travel and hospitality industry has undergone.
The way customers experience travel services, as well as how those enterprises manage customer identities, has become a crucial consideration. CIAM is a critical component of this change, addressing challenges such as inconsistent user experiences and security while offering the potential for highly personalized customer interactions. Explore the role of CIAM solutions in the travel and hospitality sector, both at home and abroad, and how they are enabling the industry to keep up with changes.
Traditional CIAM Solutions in Travel and Hospitality
In the past, traditional CIAM in travel and hospitality often led to inconsistent user experiences. Travelers and vacationers frequently found themselves having to create separate accounts for every provider they used – airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel agencies, to name a few. This resulted in fragmented and siloed systems, each with their own identity systems, which, in turn, increased the attack surface and made it challenging to provide a seamless and secure experience for consumers.
Moreover, these disjointed systems made it difficult to gain a comprehensive view of customers’ preferences, behaviors, and expectations. Consequently, the lack of consumer insights hindered personalization efforts. Essentially, companies struggled to tailor their services and marketing to meet individual needs effectively. Businesses missed potential improvements to customer experience, resulting in unprofitable friction.
Achieving Both Customer Experience and Security
In today’s world, users expect a frictionless and secure experience when interacting with travel and hospitality services. The rise of technology-driven and digitized experiences, such as self-service kiosks, mobile check-in, facial recognition used for airplane boarding, and contactless payments, has set the bar high. Customers lash out when they lose the convenience of these features. However, you must deliver convenience without compromising on personal data security.
Additionally, the travel and hospitality industry also faces unique challenges. These include the integration of business and leisure travel, the increasing importance of experiences over possessions, and a surge in research-savvy travelers. Additional issues include ongoing staffing shortages, supply chain challenges, and rising costs that make necessary infrastructure upgrades more challenging. In such an environment, striking the right balance between customer experience and security is crucial. Managed CIAM solutions are the best way to achieve these directives.
Implications of Leveraging Managed CIAM Solutions
Leveraging managed CIAM services can be a game-changer for the travel and hospitality industry. These solutions help companies keep up with industry trends, provide automation and expert oversight, and offer a wide range of benefits:
Keep up with Industry Trends: The travel and hospitality sector is known for its fast-paced changes. Managed CIAM solutions ensure that companies stay up to date with the latest trends and technologies. This helps them remain competitive and relevant to their consumers.
Automation and Expert Oversight: Managed CIAM services provide automation to engage travelers with frictionless digital experiences. These systems capture valuable consumer insights. These are then integrated with the tech stack to enhance services and tailor marketing campaigns effectively.
Empower Frontline Employees: In a time when the travel and hospitality industry faces staffing shortages, managed CIAM services empower frontline employees to provide superior customer service. This can be done by simplifying processes, making relevant customer data readily available, and automating routine tasks.
Protect Consumer Data: Securing consumer data is paramount. Managed CIAM services offer enhanced security measures to safeguard customer data, including personal and financial information.
Improved Customer Experiences: The ultimate goal of CIAM solutions is to provide a seamless and highly personalized customer experience. With a managed CIAM system in place, customers can easily book flights, manage reservations, and access loyalty programs using a single account, eliminating the need for multiple logins and enhancing convenience.
Better Security: Managed CIAM services also deliver better security, ensuring that customer loyalty accounts for airlines, hotels, and other providers remain protected from cyber threats.
Deeper Consumer Insights: By centralizing and analyzing customer data, businesses can gain a more comprehensive understanding of their customers. This deeper insight enables them to provide better, more personalized customer experiences.
Leverage CIAM in your Organization
The travel and hospitality industry evolves rapidly, driven by technological advancements and shifting customer expectations. As travel and leisure merge, personalized experiences become the norm. Furthermore, as technology plays a more significant role, CIAM solutions have a crucial role. With the right CIAM strategy in place, your travel and hospitality business can continue to thrive in a changing world.
Contact a Simeio identity advisor and learn what the ideal CIAM solution looks like for your enterprise.
